(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for compressing empty containers, such as beverage bottles or beverage cans and similar waste materials.
(2) Description of Related Art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Such devices are employed for compacting empty containers, in particular containers out of the food region, such as beverage bottles, cans and the like deformable containers, for transport to the recycling plants or, respectively, for the recycling process itself.
On the one hand, devices operating according to the principle of the plate pressing and on the other hand, such devices where the pressing unit/units contains/contain rollers. These devices are optimized either for the preparation of plastic containers or of tin plate containers/cans.
Since the recited waste materials can contain in a not unimportant number also closed containers, frequently a perforating press is predisposed to the pressing device/devices of these machines, for example a perforating press according to the German printed patent document DE 4338561 A1 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,661 A.
In order to be able to decrease the technical expenditure with these apparatuses, also apparatuses are known where means for perforating are furnished at press parts of the pressing devices, for example at a device for compacting of empty beverage containers according to the German printed patent document DE 1005501 A1. This device has a transport path essentially funnel shaped narrowing, into which path the beverage containers are run and are successively compacted under the effect of arrangements limiting the transport path on the side for transporting and compressing.
In addition, it is there provided that the rollers are furnished with blade shaped projections distributed over the circumference of the rollers, which projections extend over the length of the rollers, that is parallel to the rotation axis of the rollers. Furthermore and in particular the arrangements for transporting and compressing of the beverage containers at this device consist out of rollers driven with drum motors.
This arrangement is in particular expensive and service intensive because of the last recited device groups.
A further disadvantage is present were the distance of the pairwise arranged rollers, in particular those with the smallest distance of the axes, is not precisely adjusted with respect to the distance of the axes and the position of the there longitudinally directed blades. Then a separation of the materials fed through occurs such that smaller pieces are in each case generated from a bottle or can. Such smaller pieces if at all can only very poorly be processed to form bales; further containers are then necessary for the transport of the bales. In addition such smaller and smallest pieces are not always looked for in the further processing and frequently the further processing requires a plate shaped material.
As explained above, apparatuses known from the state-of-the-art can compress both empty and deformable containers out of plastic or out of tin plate/metal. The press units or, respectively, press and cutting units represent a compromise. Either they are optimized with respect to a high quality and/or quantity at the compressing of containers made of plastic, or for the compressing of containers made of metal; or a compromise is entered the with respect to both types of starting materials.
If thus compressed plastic containers as well as compressed metal cans in a high quality are to be present for further processing or, respectively, a high throughput is to be achieved in the apparatuses with respect to each of the two types of starting material, then in most cases a separate apparatus is required for each type of empty containers, with which apparatus in fact also the other type of empty containers can be compressed, but not in an optimal way. This fact entails among other things also a higher investment expenditure for the operator of such apparatuses.
Starting from this state of the art, a person of ordinary skill in the art is presented with the task to form an apparatus for compressing of empty containers, in particular beverage bottles or beverage cans made out of plastic, in particular polyethylene terephthalate PET-bottles, or tin plate such that the compressing of containers out of plastic as well as also out of metal/tin plate in a high quality and reliably is assured and that the production costs, operating costs, as well as the maintenance expenditure for this apparatus can be reduced relative to conventional apparatuses.